Memory Lapse
by darkrunner
Summary: Mokuba and Shizuka have a chat while watching their brothers duel for Duel Academy. Siblingshipping for contest.


A/N: This is the most hilarious shipping name to use around people who know of the shipping naming phenomena, but do not know which characters are in said shipping. XD It's much like playing a game of "horrify the Twilight n00b". SIBLINGshipping?! Bella kisses Jacob?! See?

Shizuka could see Jou and Kaiba's duel from the window on the blimp. Yeah. The window. I should've done my research BEFORE I wrote it...

Takes place in the same universe as my replayshipping "Good To See You". Though I think that fic overall is terrible, I like the stuff about Duel Academy in it.

Disclaimer: AHAHAHAHA. The idea of me owning this is more hilarious than the aforementioned Twilight-n00b-horrifying game. And I love that game.

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Kaiba Mokuba eyed the duel from his vantage point at the top of the arena. His brother and Jounouchi Katsuya were entertaining the students of Duel Academy as part of the graduation ceremony. The elder Kaiba apparently decided that a normal commencement speech would be too bland and so was shouting advice to the graduates in between trouncing Jounouchi at Duel Monsters.

Having witnessed his brother's duels more times than he could count, Mokuba turned his attention to the crowd. The crowd was divided between graduates and their families, the students on Mokuba's side. In the very last row, however, was a woman close to his age--too old to be a student, and not wearing the uniform besides. Mokuba caught a glimpse of her face when she turned to cheer, and was hit by a strong desire to sit next to her. He ambled down the stairs and slid into the space beside her.

"Is this seat taken?" he asked, his flirting more than obvious.

"No, go ahead," she smiled, glancing at him. Mokuba blushed--for all his bravado, he was not very smooth with girls--and looked at the field.

"Enjoying the duel?" he stammered, hoping she would direct her gaze away from him. She kept smiling--did she think his discomfort was funny?--but looked towards the duelists.

"Of course," she replied. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, dueling's not for everyone. I can't imagine life without it, but so many families don't support their relatives pursuing a career in it--though I guess they wouldn't be here if they thought that, eh?"

"That's horrible," the woman replied, frowning for the first time.

"I know, but it happens," Mokuba shrugged. "Not everyone's got family here to see them graduate.

"Parents should be there for their children," she said firmly. "No matter what."

"Yeah," Mokuba agreed, and a predictable awkward silence followed. They resumed watching the duel. Mokuba cursed how he'd led the conversation.

"So... who're you here for?" he asked. The woman blinked, not looking up.

"My brother," she mumbled, saying the words as quickly as possible. Mokuba wondered if he'd hit on a sore subject. he tried to think of something else to talk about.

"Um... so..."

"What do you think of the duel?" she asked, cutting him off. So it WAS a bad subject if she'd changed it. Again, he cursed his mistake, and welcomed her fixing it.

"I'm bound to biased, so if you're a fan of Jounouchi-kun, you might not want me to say anything," Mokuba started. The girl giggled.

"No, no, go ahead," she urged. Mokuba grinned. If there was one thing he could do, it was analyze a duel.

"Well, Jounouchi-kun's got a great offense as always, but my brother's got this won on strategy."

"You don't think m-- Jounouchi's got a good strategy?"

"Eh..." Mokuba shook his hand in a so-so gesture. "I mean, there IS a strategy, but he's like Yuugi-kun in that he relies on a big, improbable combination of cards. Except that Yuugi-kun GETS his cards, and Jounouchi-kun has a lot of luck-based things thrown in the mix."

"...so what's wrong with it?" the girl asked. "You'll have to explain it to me simply, I'm afraid."

"Okay, his deck revolves around the Red-Eyes Black Dragon."

"Right."

"So all the cards in his deck support that card. The point of his deck is to get it onto the field."

"With you so far."

"But he's only got one game-winning combination with it, and it requires too many cards. It's really difficult to get everything at the same time."

"He can't win without this combination?" the girl asked, looking somewhat worried.

"Against another duelist, sure, but not my brother. HIS deck is based on disrupting enemy strategy, while making it easier for him to summon his Blue-Eyes White Dragons."

"And all that means that Jounouchi won't win?"

"That's my bet," Mokuba nodded.

"There's no way Jounouchi can pull it out?"

"Nope. You should have seen when they dueled for third place at Battle City. He never had a chance."

"Oh, I did see that duel."

Mokuba nodded. Then looked at the girl. That duel, since it was not an offical part of the Battle City tournament, was not included with the DVDs. There were no cameras broadcasting on the ground where the duel took place, and neither his brother or Jounouchi had ever even spoken of it. There was no way anyone who was not there at the time could have seen the duel.

The girl turned to face Mokuba. "Right, Mokuba-kun?"

Mokuba wanted to sink through the floor. He did, in fact, slide down in his seat as he took a good look at the person he was sitting next to. Her hair was short and lighter, he face much, much older, her... he forced his eyes to stay on her face. He hadn't seen her in years, and yet, after all their group had been through, that wasn't nearly an excuse.

"S-shizuka-san?" He tacked the honorific on for good measure. He never would have referred to any of the gang with honorifics back then.

She laughed, and he realized that it wasn't a sore subject at all when she'd said "my brother", she'd been trying not to laugh.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba-kun," she laughed, "I shouldn't have done it, but I couldn't help myself. You just..." she looked at his stunned, horrified face, and couldn't speak for laughing. Mokuba didn't even care that the students in the top rows were looking at them, he was too mortified that he had NOT RECOGNIZED her.

"I'm so sorry..." he stammered, not sure what he could say to make up for it. Shizuka waved him off.

"Oh, don't worry, it's been ages." Her laughter died down. "My brother can't believe it sometimes, either. I know Honda-kun and Otogi-kun certainly can't."

Mokuba's hand curled into a fist remembering the two boys. He unclenched it, startled. Why should he react that way to their names?

"I keep telling my brother it's been too long since I've seen you and your brother, but he just mutters something about Kaiba-kun and says he's busy."

"It HAS been too long," Mokuba nodded. "How've you been?"

"Oh, pretty good. On my summer break right now, still have one last year of school."

"Still?" Mokuba queried. "But... I'M out of university. What're you studying now?"

"Med school," Shizuka replied.

"Aaah," Mokuba nodded, understanding. "Figures. Because of your eyes, right?"

"Not exactly," Shizuka laughed. "That's part of it. But... actually, I suppose I've got your brother to thank for it. A few years ago, after that student's choice duel, my brother finally stopped being such an idiot and got together with Mai-san. That made me remember all the stuff that happened in Battle City, that doctor on the blimp, how my brother could've..." here her voice faltered, and Mokuba wished he could comfort her. "...died. And then... none of that would have happened."

"I never would have thought about it like that if they hand't dueled, so... thanks."

Mokuba didn't say anything. The idea of a student-choice duel had been HIS idea. His brother hated the thing because he was afraid he'd get picked. Indeed, he had, and was going strong with Ishizu Ishtar because of it. He wanted to let Shizuka know that he had been part of her descision, hers, her brother's and soon-to-be-sister-in-law's happiness. He opened his mouth...

The duel ended, cutting him off. Both Shizuka and Mokuba looked down at the field to see Kaiba holding one hand in the air, Jounouchi shaking his head. True to Mokuba's prediction, the elder Kaiba was the victor.

"Oh, great," Shizuka sighed. "It's going to be a fun ride home."

"You could stick around," Mokuba blurted out. Shizuka looked at him.

"I could," she considered. "I've been wanting to look around Duel Academy. But... Mai-san's got a duel the day after tomorrow."

"What a concidence, I was planning on going to it!" Mokuba lied. "How about this, you stay a day, get a look around the place, and you can fly with me to the duel?"

"Hmmm..." Shizuka mused. Mokuba held his breath. He wasn't a very good liar. Was he being too obvious?

"Yeah, I'd like that!" Shizuka smiled, standing up. "Come on, let's go find our brothers, they'll want to see us after the duel."

"Alright!" Mokuba grinned, getting up with her. He slid out of the row, waiting a beat so she could follow. "This way, the students'll be going down, we'll never get through that way."

"Thanks, Mokuba-kun!" His heart skipped a beat. He looked around at her.

"Don't worry, I didn't get lost yet," she laughed.

"Right," Mokuba replied, his turning around not having anything to do with making sure she didn't get lost.

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A/N: To those who are new to the contest, you will learn quickly (or possibly not, since there's so many people and who knows if you'll remember me) that my favorite pairing is JouMai, and I stick it in wherever I can.


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